


now that i'm broken

by LittleSpoonSebastian



Category: SHINee
Genre: Blood and Gore, Drug Use, Gen, Horror, Hospitals, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Phobias, selectively mute!jinki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 17:01:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30142728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSpoonSebastian/pseuds/LittleSpoonSebastian
Summary: The windows are gone.The windows are gone and Jonghyun is sure that they were there before.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	now that i'm broken

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably gonna have loads of mistakes in it because i cba formatting it on ao3 lmao

"You're a fucking dumbass, Minho. Seriously, your timing is incredible."

Jonghyun and Taemin smirk at each other across the table. The sight of Kibum going off on Minho never gets old. Minho keeps searching through his bag, a little more frantic than before. He has already searched every square inch of his bag, and Jinki is still outside searching the car.

"Do you remember packing them?"

Minho's hands fly up with an exasperated whine,  
"Yes! I put them in the front compartment- Taemin watched me do it, ask him!"

Taemin's head snaps up. Why is he part of the conversation? Kibum rolls his eyes at Minho and turns to Taemin,  
"Tae, do you remember seeing him put his pills in his bag?"

"Uh..."

He considers lying to defend Minho, but then that would cause more problems. Like, Kibum would think they got pickpocketed or something wild like that.

"Um... no?"

It's actually Minho who blows up on him,  
"You were sat right there! We were in the living room and you watched me put everything in my bag!"

Taemin shrinks into himself a little. He hates when they raise their voices,  
"I- I wasn't paying attention."

"Oh, for fuck's-" Kibum pushes his chair back and storms out of the kitchen. Taemin and Minho participate in a whisper fight while he's gone, but they shut up once Jonghyun cuts in-

"Guys can you just find them quickly because if you don't we'll have to deal with Kibum the whole holiday."

It's times like this when they're all really grateful for Jonghyun. Minho shuts up and sulks in his seat with the contents of his bag, minus the pills, spread out across the table.

"Can't you just, like, not take them? It's only a week." Taemin asks in a smaller voice than before. Minho sighs and crosses his arms,  
"No. I have to take them every day."

Kibum returns with Jinki closely following,  
"Great news guys, we're spending our first day in England looking for a fucking hospital unless Minho's pills happen to randomly show up."

Both Taemin and Minho groan loudly, whilst Jonghyun instantly sits up,  
"Wait, all of us? Are we all going?"

Kibum sighs. Whilst Jinki shuts the other two up and shoves them over to get ready, he pulls out his chair again and sits next to Jonghyun. He sighs again,  
"Look, I know it's not ideal with your phobia and everything. And this isn't any of your fault so why should you suffer, right?"

Jonghyun takes his sleeve and starts buttoning and unbuttoning the cuff of the jacket. Kibum continues,  
"But I'd much rather you be safe with all four of us than leave you here in a country you don't speak the language of. Okay?"

Jonghyun nods. Kibum stands back up,  
"Now let's go and fix Minho's dumbassery."

-

The ride to the hospital in their rental car is painfully silent for the most part. This time Jinki is driving. He offered when he saw how distraught Jonghyun looked, and thought he could do with a break rather than driving them all to the one place he didn't want to be.

Kibum is in the passenger seat, reading about how to get a prescription for missing pills. Because of course Minho didn't take his prescription if he thought he had the pills in the first place.

Taemin, and Jonghyun are sat together, Taemin behind Kibum and Jonghyun in the middle. They're both silent but they're having a wild conversation via text. And the culprit himself is sitting behind Jinki, feeling extra terrible now that he has to drag everyone out to a hospital, especially Jonghyun.

Jinki pulls into the car park and finds a space. The place is pretty packed even though it's early morning, but he manages to sneak into a space just as the car leaves.

As soon as the engine is off Kibum turns to the three in the back of the car,  
"So once we get in there we've gotta stick together. Hopefully it's gonna be a short trip but I honestly have no idea what to do without that prescription-"

Jonghyun cuts in,  
"Can I just stay in the car? We don't all need to go in, right?"

Kibum looks at Jonghyun with the saddest expression he's ever pulled,  
"Jonghyun, honey, it's not gonna be that long of a trip. I hate to make you go but I don't want to leave everyone in different places. You can stay in the waiting room with hyung and Taemin, okay? You won't have to go with me and Minho."

They all get out of the car and start to complain about the weather. Even Jinki pouts and signs 'cold' to whoever's looking at him. Taemin giggles and clings onto him from behind, putting his own hands in his hyung's pockets. They try and walk like that but Taemin nearly trips over Jinki's feet so he lets go.

Minho and Kibum stride ahead, wanting to get it over with. Jonghyun clings onto Kibum and sort of skips along, starting to really hate his shorter legs.

Kibum pushes the large entrance door open, giving Minho a pointed look. Minho glares at him and walks inside, Jonghyun, Jinki, Taemin, and finally Kibum following behind him.

"I wish this had never happened," he grumbles, walking up to the vacant receptionist desk with Kibum.

The door slams shut.

The room darkens significantly at the same time. Jonghyun squeaks and turns around, covering his mouth to try and stifle the sound that already left him.

The windows are gone.

The windows are gone and Jonghyun is sure that they were there before. There were windows on either side of the door when he was outside the building. He whispers,  
"What the fuck?" which attracts Jinki's attention, who doesn't seem to notice what's wrong.

Jinki looks at the wall where the window should be, that Jonghyun is staring at. He signs 'what is it' and Jonghyun says quietly,  
"Wasn't there a window there?"

Before Jinki can do anything Kibum groans and puts his head on the receptionist desk,  
"Why is no-one coming? Is there some fucking memo we didn't get?"

Taemin cuts in, looking at the wall too,  
"Wait, wasn't there..." he trails off. Jonghyun whines,  
"I wanna go back to the car! I don't like this!"

Minho peers down the corridor beside the desk and finds that there is no-one there, and the doors are all shut as far as he can see.  
"Are you sure this place is even open?"

"It's a hospital. It's always open. Besides, the car park is full, so people must be in the waiting room at least," Kibum replies, starting to give up on the idea of staying in England. If they got to the airport now and took the first flight back to Korea then maybe Minho would be alright for one day before he got his pills back.

"Guys?"

Minho turns to Kibum,  
"Why don't we go to the waiting room then and see if there's anyone we can talk to?"

"Okay then, you go to the waiting room with Taemin and I'll stay with the others and wait here."

"No you should go because you speak English-"

"What if someone shows up here and I've gotta explain why we're all just standing here? Taemin's English is good enough, you should-"

"Guys!" Taemin shouts. They both turn around. He glares at them and points to Jinki.

Jinki is holding Jonghyun, rubbing his back slowly, and although Jonghyun isn't facing them they can tell he's crying from the way his shoulders rise when he takes a breath.

"I wanna go home,"

Minho's heart shatters. He knows that Jonghyun doesn't like hospitals but he hasn't really paid much attention to it.  
"Okay. You know what? Let's just go back to the house." Kibum announces, walking back to the door,  
"We can figure out what to do then."

He pulls on the door handle. It doesn't budge at all. He pushes the door, even though it's clearly a handle made to be pulled. It doesn't open. He pushes and pulls on the door violently.

It still doesn't open.

Jonghyun lets go of Jinki and tries opening the door himself. He sobs and pulls the door even more violently than Kibum, so violently that they can all hear it rattle in the frame. He starts to sob even louder as Jinki takes him by the shoulders and hugs him again.

Jinki soothes Jonghyun by shushing him, since he can't exactly sign to him when he's holding him like this. Kibum remains calm and tells them all,  
"Okay. Okay, fine, I'll go find the waiting room and talk to someone, you guys stay here."

Minho cuts in,  
"Didn't you want us all to stay together?"

"Well yeah but I don't wanna make Jonghyun go anywhere else. We've only just gotten through the doors and look at him."

Minho mutters,  
"I think we should all go. I wanna eliminate the possibility of this getting worse."

Kibum stares at him for a few seconds. Then he sighs and walks off down the corridor ahead of them,  
"Fine. Fine, just do whatever, sure. It's not like you're the one who got us into this shitshow anyway."

Minho rolls his eyes, but he follows him, along with Taemin. Jinki guides Jonghyun along with hands on both his shoulders, massaging him a little with his thumbs just to help ground him.

Kibum notices as they walk along the corridor that every door is closed, and seemingly empty. A few doors down there's a turn, and a big sign hanging from the ceiling that says 'Waiting Area'.

Kibum sighs. Finally. He turns the corner and is immediately met with a large square room lined with many rows of seats with thin, navy blue cushions.

But no people.

"What the fuck?" Minho mutters to himself. Kibum watches the younger, who approaches one wall and pulls up the white blinds clumsily. That's when Kibum finally notices it. There's a window frame, a windowsill, and some blinds, but where there should be a window there is just more of the white cinderblock wall.

Someone taps Kibum's shoulder. He turns and faces Jinki. Jinki gestures to Jonghyun, who has moved from his side to Taemin's. He signs, 'He saw other windows disappear before.'

Kibum gets the general gist and looks over at Jonghyun and Taemin. He asks,  
"Did you guys see stuff like this in reception?" Jonghyun replies shakily,  
"There were windows in the- they were there when we were outside and then they were gone."

"Fuck," he whispers. Minho lets go of the blinds and says a little less surely than before,  
"We should go back to reception. Someone has to walk in eventually."

For once Kibum doesn't have anything better to suggest. He gives Minho a small nod and takes Jonghyun's hand. The others follow behind him as he heads back down the corridor.

It's Jonghyun who notices it first. He wrenches his hand out of Kibum's and almost stumbles to the door, or, where the door should be. But like the windows, it has been replaced with white cinderblock. The wall is now completely empty.

Jonghyun starts sobbing again as he hits the wall as if it's going to break just like that. Minho immediately intervenes before he can hurt himself, trying to hug him and gently take him away, but Jonghyun pulls away from him and runs past them all.

He reaches the first door in the corridor and swings it open.  
"Jonghyun!" shouts Kibum, instinctively thinking that someone could be in that room and he's disturbing them. But it's clearly empty since Jonghyun runs inside.

They all run after him, and Taemin makes it first, standing in the doorway of what looks like an office and watching Jonghyun pull the blinds away to reveal another wall instead of a window. He lets go of the blinds with a strange little gasp and stumbles back into Taemin.

"What the fuck happened to the windows?" Minho asks, voice raising as he steps back. Jinki storms into the next room, finds an identical office, and an identical window frame. Minho runs to the doorway of that room and makes a sort of desperate sound, then runs to the next door.

Kibum screams as this door opens. They all turn to him immediately. He's sat against the opposite wall, looking down at the floor with his hands over his eyes.

"Hyung?"

Kibum looks up. He stares at Minho, and then at the room, and whispers,  
"There's someone in there."

"What?"

"That room. Someone's in there."

Minho looks inside the room. There's no-one there. He turns back to Kibum,  
"H-hyung, there's no-"

Someone grabs Minho's shoulder. His heart skips a beat and he throws the hand off his shoulder with a shout. He scrambles away and turns back to see a fair-skinned nurse dressed in all white. There are featureless stretches of skin where her eyes should be.

Jonghyun screams, and covers his mouth. The nurse faces him and snarls, starting to walk towards him, running her hands across the wall to guide her. Jonghyun and Taemin run to the other side of the corridor.

"Should we hide?" Taemin asks frantically, backing up against the wall. As soon as he speaks the nurse turns to him again. Kibum understands. He signs to them 'quiet' and then moves towards Minho, who's on the other side of the corridor.

They all carefully gather outside the room she came from. Jinki waves to them all, and then signs 'hide' and 'waiting room'. None of them argue, and they all obey immediately.

They try and tread very lightly so their footsteps don't make a noise, but Taemin's shoes squeaking against the polished floor is unpreventable.

Jinki makes it to the waiting room first and sits on some of the chairs so he doesn't make any more noise. Kibum and Jonghyun follow and stand together in the corner, Jonghyun burying his face in Kibum's shoulder as he tries to stifle his own panicked breathing.

Minho sits on the chairs across from Jinki, and Taemin runs in and has no time to find somewhere to hide before the nurse is stumbling around the corner. He presses himself against the wall, closest to the entrance.

They all look at Taemin, and the rapid rise and drop of his chest. He's breathing too hard. Too loud. The nurse is looking in his direction. Kibum stares at him and slowly brings a single finger up to his lips.

Taemin's eyes shut tightly. He brings his jacket sleeve up and bites it hard, trying to stifle his breath. The nurse's hands start scratching along the wall, getting dangerously close to him.

Her nails start scratching over his sleeve, digging into his arm. Like she's still searching for him. He tries to stay silent as her nails dig into his skin, but he finally breaks and lets out a whimper of pain.

In one immediate motion the nurse grabs his arm and opens her mouth. The scream that follows pierces through their ears, not coming just from where she stands. Jinki winces and covers his ears, but it has no effect. The sound still breaks through with the same intensity.

Taemin gets the brunt of the damage. His scream of pain is barely audible over her, and the others watch, petrified, as his eyes roll back and his body goes limp. His fall into unconsciousness is slow and torturous, as his body slides down the wall.

When all the screaming stops, Minho stands up, about to rush to Taemin, but Kibum strongly signs 'don't' to him. Minho looks at him helplessly.

The nurse grabs Taemin's arms and drags him across the floor, out of the waiting room. The four of them are alone.

Minho hisses,  
"Why did we just let him go? Why did you stop me?" Kibum explains softly, strangely calm,  
"Minho. That thing is unpredictable. I don't wanna lose two of us."

"Why the fuck are you okay with all of this?!"

Kibum hisses back over the sound of Jonghyun's sobbing,  
"You think I'm okay with this? I'm just trying not to escalate the situation!"

Jonghyun stumbles into Kibum's arms suddenly with a wild, desperate whine. Kibum is silent for a second, but he quickly rubs Jonghyun's back,  
"It's okay, Jjong."

But Jonghyun just whines into the cotton of Kibum's hoodie,  
"No it isn't! We're gonna die!"

"No, no no we're not gonna die, honey. We're gonna be just fine."

Jonghyun doesn't take in anything he's saying. He starts hiccuping after every sob, and Kibum knows the signs. He pulls Jonghyun away and grabs both his shoulders,  
"Hey, hey, deep breaths, okay? Can you do that? Repeat after me-"

He starts taking deep breaths in and out, watching Jonghyun struggle through a few breaths. He doesn't even let him calm down fully before he lets go and gathers them all. Taemin could be dead and frankly that's more important than Jonghyun's potential panic attack,  
"Okay, we've gotta find Taemin. Stay close and try to be quiet."

Minho offers a hand to Jonghyun, who gladly huddles into his side. Jinki stays beside Kibum, who slowly walks out of the waiting room.

They have no time to process what just happened, but Kibum knows they have to keep moving if they want to get anywhere close to an exit that actually exists.

They go further down the corridor, assuming that the nurse took Taemin there rather than to reception. They move quickly, Jinki and Kibum carefully opening each door along the way, to find each room vacant with bare walls where the windows would be.

They reach a corner and gaze down the even longer corridor. Kibum takes out his phone and takes a picture of the one they just went down. Jinki sighs and pushes the first door open.

Minho whips around at the sound of something clattering to the floor. Kibum's hands are shaking and his phone lies on the floor a few feet away. At first Minho thinks Kibum is about to faint, but then the elder takes a shaky breath and his hands go up to clutch the back of his head.

"Hyung? Are you hurt?" Minho asks unsurely. Kibum doesn't reply. He doesn't even react. Minho lets go of Jonghyun and puts one hand on Kibum's shoulder. The other goes up to where Kibum's hands are. He feels wetness in his hair.

"Hyung-"

His hand comes back from Kibum's head and his fingertips are coated with a black, viscous liquid. Almost like blood. He gasps and stares at his own hand, too focused on the shock to register that Kibum is collapsing.

At the last minute Minho's hands scramble to catch him,  
"Kibum!" He falls to his knees with him, shaking his shoulders,  
"Kibum, what's wrong?"

Kibum doesn't react to Minho's shouts at all. His own hands come back completely covered in the black substance.  
"Answer me!" Minho shouts. Kibum whimpers and covers his ears. Jinki kneels next to them, lifting Kibum's head with a finger under his chin, and he sees how vacant Kibum's eyes are.

They're not their usual brown, but an empty grey that looks lifeless. Kibum looks up at Jinki and sobs silently, his hands coming to grab handfuls of the eldest's jacket to keep himself steadier.

"My head..."

The other three all flinch when Kibum's voice sounds in their ears much closer than they expected. It's like he's speaking right into their ears, when he's really far from them.

Kibum starts to lean forward into Jinki's lap, unable to support himself any more. Minho's breath hitches when he sees the dark patch of matted blonde hair, coated in black just like his hands.

His hand goes up to part some of the hair, and immediately lets go when Kibum wails in pain.  
"What happened to him?!" He asks them. Jinki sighs and grabs Kibum by the shoulders, maneuvering his body so that he's sat up and leaning against the wall. Jonghyun stays against the wall in the corner.

"Kibum?" Minho asks again, this time a lot softer and scared sounding. Jinki looks into Kibum's eyes, and suddenly he hits him across the face.

"Jinki!"

Jinki turns and signs to Minho 'wait'. Kibum splutters for a moment, but he ultimately seems a little more aware. He looks at Jinki,  
"Hyung? I was- why am I on the floor?"  
Jinki signs 'hurt your head' at him. Kibum sees his own stained hands and whispers,  
"What the fuck happened?"

Minho cuts in,  
"Your head was bleeding b-but it was... black? You were acting really strange, hyung." Kibum stands up fast like nothing just happened, like he wasn't just crying on the floor in both their arms,  
"We've still gotta find Taemin."

"Kibum! You can't just get back up again and pretend it's fine!"

Kibum turns back to Minho.  
"Uh. Yeah I can. I feel fine, I promise." He goes to take Jonghyun's hand again but Jonghyun whimpers and flinches away from him.

"Jjongie? I'm okay. It's fine, I promise." Kibum assures him, hand still outstretched. Jonghyun still doesn't take his hand. He asks him, barely audible,  
"You didn't know your name. You didn't listen to us."

Kibum pauses.  
"I- I didn't?"

Jinki stands between them, signing 'he's in danger'. They both know he means Taemin. Kibum sighs,  
"Just forget about me, okay? I don't know what happened just then but we need to focus on Taemin."

Minho picks up Kibum's phone, handing it to him,  
"The screen is a little cracked." Kibum curses under his breath, but ultimately keeps moving. Luckily the corridor is well lit, so it's not like anything can jump out at them.

A few doors later, they reach a pair of double doors. Jinki opens the doors and reveals a different looking area. Kibum reads out the sign above the doors,  
"Radiology."

A silence falls between them. Kibum peers into the dark room. It's a much larger, square room, with two doors on the back wall.

Without looking back to the others he walks to the door on the left and pulls it. It doesn't budge. He pushes the door, feeling a strong sense of deja vu. Why has he had to open so many doors today?

It still doesn't open. It's clearly locked, but there's a small glass window, that doesn't show anything as the room inside is pitch black.

"Hey..."

Kibum looks at Jonghyun, who pushes the door on the right open and steps inside. Jinki and Minho follow. Kibum looks inside from the door frame, and sees a dim, rectangular room. On the wall connecting this room with the dark one there's a large window. Kibum stands in the cramped room with them, and when he sees the size of the window he realises-

"It's an observation room," Minho mutters to himself.

The door closes behind them. Kibum jumps a little, and instinctively goes to turn the handle. The door has locked.  
"Fuck!" he growls, pounding on the door.

"Hyung?"

Kibum falls silent, hand still hovering in the air, about to hit the door again. That sounds like...

"Taemin?" Minho asks. Kibum moves away from the door, and closer to where the voice came from. Jinki catches his eye as he points to a small speaker in the corner of the room.

"Taemin? Is that you?"

A small, shaky breath comes from the speaker, and Kibum knows for sure that it's him. He sobs, which comes out crackled through the speaker,  
"Hyung!"

Kibum and Jonghyun share a horrified glance, and Minho shouts,  
"Can you hear us? Where are you?!"

"I can't move!"

Kibum squints as the lights turn on in both rooms.

"Taemin!"

Kibum looks where Minho's looking through the window, and he sees the reason Minho is screaming his name.

Taemin is lying on the table in the middle, bound by thick straps that wrap around his stomach, thighs and ankles. Beside him is the same nurse, running her hands across the edge of the table. Kibum's head floods with searing pain that he really tries to ignore when he sees her, but he holds his head with an agonised groan.

"Please... please!" Taemin starts to beg the nurse, switching to English. Minho pounds on the glass, screaming Taemin's name.

Jonghyun backs into the corner with a small sob; it's too much. Kibum is leaning into Jinki's side and Minho is trying to force his way out of the room. The nurse takes something from the table beside her, and it doesn't take much for Jinki and Minho to realise that it's a syringe. The needle is long and thin, and she positions it right over Taemin's chest.

Taemin screams and starts tugging hard at the restraints, but he won't move. The nurse hisses at his noise, and moves the needle closer to his mouth, at the side of his neck.

Taemin moves his head and looks through the window. He cries out as the needle barely scratches his skin,  
"Hyung!"

The needle slowly pierces through his skin as he screams, just as Minho kicks the door hard, and it flies open,  
"Taemin!"

Taemin is hyperventilating as the needle goes deep into his neck. He doesn't dare move his head now, as the liquid inside the syringe is pushed into him. It feels cold inside him, blooming from the point it first entered.

The door slams open. The nurse pulls the needle out and opens her mouth. The same scream follows, but Minho doesn't flinch. Adrenaline rushes through his body as he grabs the first instrument from the table, and he shoves the nurse against the wall, plunging the tool into her shoulder.

She screeches directly at him, and Minho lets go of her to cover his ears, the scalpel clattering to the floor. The nurse falls with a loud thud, a patch of black liquid staining the clothes where he stabbed her.

As her screams die down, Minho starts to hear everything else. Taemin is crying hysterically now, sobbing Minho's name.

Kibum is screaming in pain in the next room. Minho looks through the window and feels his body run cold as he sees Kibum's clothes stained with the same black liquid in the same place.

"Hyung!" Taemin sobs, snapping Minho out of his focus on the others. Kibum has two people to help him; Taemin needs him now.

He starts unbuckling the thick straps, starting with the one on Taemin's chest. Minho notices a thin trickle of blood running down the side of Taemin's neck, and can't help but notice that it isn't black.

"Hyung! Hyung please-" Taemin makes a strange hiccuping sound between breaths, and Minho finally pulls the strap off him, sitting him up and hugging him tightly,  
"It's okay baby, you're safe."

Minho lets go quickly to free the younger's legs. Once the straps are off Taemin gets off the table and stumbles into Minho's arms, shaking and struggling to hold himself up. Minho rubs his back and soothes him,  
"Shhhh, it's okay, you're safe now. I'm here baby."

He pulls his sleeve over his hand and dabs at the blood on Taemin's neck. He would use something from the room but at this point he trusts nothing and he'd rather get his sleeve dirty.

"Minho!" Jonghyun cries out. Minho sighs and bends down, hooking his hand under Taemin's legs and carrying him out of the room. He has a feeling Taemin can't really support himself well when he's in this state of pure panic.

"Minho, it's Kibum!"

He carefully sets Taemin down on the floor against the wall and shuts the door. Finally he looks over at the other three. Jinki has Kibum's arm around him and is supporting him out of the observation room.

Jinki puts him down in a similar position to Taemin, and Jonghyun, despite being a crying mess, kneels in front of him and unzips Kibum's hoodie, pulling it away to reveal a large black stain just below his shoulder.

Kibum is panting, grasping at the collar of his t-shirt and pulling it away. Jonghyun gets the hint and takes the collar, gently pulling it down.

The stab wound looks more like a bullet wound since it was done with something so small. Even as Jonghyun thinks that it's starting to set in that this shouldn't be possible. How did he sustain the exact same injury at the same time?

Minho looks away. Taemin isn't showing any signs of calming down as he wraps his arms around himself and sobs loudly. Minho tries to block out everything else, kneeling beside him and running a hand over his hair,  
"Deep breaths, Taemin. After me, okay?"

Minho takes a deep breath in, and for once it does completely nothing. Taemin doesn't respond to him at all, making another little wet hiccup sound as his hands shake violently.

Minho frowns at him. He feels terrible that this happened, even though it's none of their faults. But he's the one who got them into this hospital in the first place, and he feels the weight of responsibility right now.

He hooks his arm under Taemin's legs again and holds him closer, so he's in his lap. He's cradling him like a baby, almost. He doesn't know what else to do. Taemin actually has hiccups now, and it's making it harder for him to breathe with Minho.

"C'mon Taeminnie, you're gonna make yourself sick," he tells him softly. Taemin keeps hiccuping and coughing, not panicking so much but now he has to catch his breath.

Eventually with Minho's help, Taemin's freakout starts to wear away, replaced by soft crying which is still not ideal, but manageable. Minho holds him close and looks over at the others. Jonghyun is putting pressure on Kibum's wound and Jinki is signing to him, telling him what to do whilst trying to somehow calm Kibum down.

This gives Minho time to process what the hell just happened. Taemin was getting tortured, and he stabbed the nurse, which had some sort of voodoo effect on Kibum who's now suffering from the exact same wound. Minho thinks of the needle that was pressed into Taemin's neck. He remembers that there was something in the syringe already, and the nurse wasn't extracting something from him. Minho realises that Taemin could have been injected with literally anything. It could be deadly.

"Taemin, did they say anything? Did you see what they put in the syringe?" Minho asks. He doesn't want to bring it up to the clearly already upset Taemin but he feel he needs to. It could be life or death for Taemin if what they put inside his body is dangerous.

But Taemin just shakes his head with a small sob. Minho knows he has to go and investigate. He picks up Taemin and brings him over to Jinki, and tells them,  
"I gonna find out what they injected him with." Jinki looks up at Minho. He doesn't stop him, instead he just frowns and waves him away, his eyes clearly worried for him.

Minho looks in the small window on the door before entering just to check the nurse hasn't moved from the floor. Once he can see she hasn't he opens the door and walks in. He immediately spots the table where many medical instruments were set out. Some of them have substances on them that Minho doesn't even want to know about.

He doesn't want to touch anything but he opens the small drawer and spots many neat rows of medications in small jars and foil covers. He sees one of the covers has been punctured and lifts it out of the drawer to see the label.

This jar has no medical labels or warnings like the others, it's just a white label with a name printed on it. Of course, it's written in English which he can't translate, but he can read it.

"Lysergic acid diethylamide"

LSD.

She had given Taemin LSD. A hallucinogenic drug. Minho swears under his breath and runs back to where the others are sat with the jar still in his hand, slamming the door behind him.

He doesn't know which of them to talk to, and he's not so sure he wants Taemin knowing what's in his system. Minho remembers the drugs awareness course that Jinki did in college and decides to talk to him.

"Hyung."

Jinki looks him in the eye. Then he stands up and walks up to Minho. The younger doesn't waste any time in asking,  
"Do you know anything about LSD?"

Jinki stares at him with blank eyes and then looks at Minho's hand, taking the jar and looking at it. Immediately he drags Minho to the observing room and closes the door, frantically shoving a large wad of paper between the door and the frame so it doesn't lock.

"They gave him LSD?" Jinki whispers. He only speaks around Minho, but it rarely happens anyway. Right now, he needs to, but he can't around the others.

"It was the only used jar. Is he- is he gonna have like, symptoms and stuff? When do they start?"

Jinki pauses for a second, staring wide-eyed at Minho as he realises the weight of the problem. Then he slowly replies,  
"Uh, because it was injected… take less time, and-" he looks at the jar and sees that it's almost empty,  
"With the amount… they gave him. Severe symptoms within 15 minutes."

Minho leans forward on the desk with a heavy sigh, swearing under his breath. He looks back up,  
"Hyung- do we tell him? What do we- do we just... do we just let it happen? How long is it gonna last? Is he gonna die?"

Jinki holds onto the younger's shoulders, whispering as he looks him in the eye,  
"Tell him now. We can't stop it. Need to prepare him.." He lets go and signs "okay?" with a questioning look.

Minho sighs.  
"Okay. I'll tell them."

Minho opens the door and walks to the others, then just gets it over with,  
"I found an open jar that's almost empty. It was full of LSD, and I think they injected it into Taemin."

Kibum is the first to speak after a blood-chilling silence between them. He grunts as he sits up further, and Jonghyun tries to keep him still and press down on the stab wound,  
"You're telling me they gave him a fucking hallucinogen?"

Minho turns to the youngest,  
"Taemin, you don't have much time before they start taking effect. I'm sorry I can't do anything." Taemin sobs quietly, looking up at Minho,  
"What's gonna happen to me? Is it gonna hurt? Hyung-"

Minho kneels in front of him,  
"It's gonna be okay, Taemin. I'm so sorry this happened to you, but we'll be with you the whole time to keep you safe, okay?" Taemin wipes his eyes hastily and nods. Minho holds his cheek and looks right in his eyes,  
"Listen, this is gonna be really scary, okay? But you've gotta stay strong for us. You have to tell me the moment you feel any different. Can you do that?"

Taemin just starts sobbing all over again. Minho assures him,  
"Nonono, don't cry. Can you do that for me Taemin?"

He finally nods softly, hands shaking as Minho takes them in his own. Jonghyun cuts in,  
"We've gotta get out of here." But Kibum quickly replies,  
"What, and get lost? If we stay here then eventually someone will show up. Besides we can't... we can't be going around this place once Taemin isn't feeling well."

"But what if it wakes up again?"

"We need to stay here and wait for rescue-"

Minho interrupts them both,  
"Look, let's face it. There's not gonna be help coming any time soon. We don't even belong to this country, no-one's gonna be looking for us. We're gonna have to find a way out ourselves." Kibum tries to protest but Minho doesn't let him continue for long. He helps Taemin up and lets him hold onto his arm.

Jonghyun and Jinki help Kibum up and walk ahead to the double doors, out of radiology, and Minho and Taemin follow.

When they get into the corridor they swap, so that Minho and Jinki are ahead to open doors to check for windows and Kibum is in the middle, whilst Jonghyun holds Taemin's hand behind them.

Jinki opens the first door and finds nothing to be alarmed about, unless you count the lack of windows. He sighs in frustration and closes the door.

Kibum cuts in,  
"We should keep them open." They all turn to him who walks to Jinki and opens the door again with his good arm,  
"So we know which ones we've seen before if we get lost."

They keep going. Minho opens the door on the left. There is what looks like a consulting room inside, but still no windows.

"Hyung."

They all turn around.

Taemin is staring blankly and not moving. As much as they were expecting it, a sense of dread creeps into Minho's heart as he watches the younger let go of Jonghyun's hand and slowly drop to his knees with wide eyes.

"Taemin?" Kibum asks wearily, stepping closer to Taemin and kneeling down in front of him. The younger doesn't reply to him, but he looks down at his lap and starts rubbing his hands back and forth over his thighs. Kibum looks up at the others,  
"What is he doing?"

Taemin tries to speak, but all that comes out is a small groan as he leans forward with his hands sliding to the floor. Kibum scoots closer and holds onto Taemin's shoulder, lifting his chin up. Immediately he can feel the heat radiating off his skin,  
"He's burning up. Taemin? Please talk to me, honey."

Minho moves to kneel next to him,  
"Hyung, his eyes- his pupils are dilated! Does that mean... what does that mean?" Before Kibum can answer, Taemin leans on Kibum's shoulder (the good one, luckily) with a whine.

The others watch as Kibum rubs Taemin's back unsurely,  
"Please, Taemin, tell me you're okay."  
After a lack of reply Minho says,  
"I'll carry him. I don't think he should be walking like this." Jonghyun raises his eyebrows,  
"We're just gonna keep going? But- but what about-"

Minho stands up with a sigh,  
"Listen, we've gotta keep going if we wanna get out of here, okay? I don't really want to either but we can't keep stopping. What if something catches up with us?"

Jonghyun stares at him, and then at Taemin. The youngest doesn't seem to be responding at all, as Kibum holds onto his limp body. Jinki helps Kibum up, and then Minho wraps his arms around Taemin, who collapses into him as soon as he's upright.

Minho hooks his arm under his legs and lifts him in a bridal carry again. Taemin suddenly gasps and looks up at Minho,  
"mm... mi- _ngh_... mmm..."

Minho looks down at him with a sad expression, and then moves to follow the others.

**Author's Note:**

> (copied over from my discord server so later parts will be uploaded there first)


End file.
